YVC LASER THERAPY: HOW IT WORKS

Laser therapy is the use of light as medical treatment. Daylight and artificial lighting are composed of many wavelengths, and we swim in them the way we would swim in water in a pool or lake. These types of light are too diffuse to be used as effective medical treatment.

In order to control light for medical treatments we use lasers. (“Laser” is the term for a beam of light composed of a single wavelength, and the same term is also for the device that produces this light.) Lasers produce light with specific wavelengths, and they can be further tuned with regard to other important variables, including frequency and intensity.

PHOTOTHERMAL, PHOTOCHEMICAL, AND PHOTOMECHANICAL REACTIONS

Medical research has produced a large amount of detailed information about the ways specific wavelengths of light interact with the cells of various body tissues. There are three basic types of interaction: photothermal, photochemical, and photomechanical.

Photothermal refers to heating tissues with laser. As opposed to the intense heat generated by cutting lasers, therapy lasers produce a gentle heat, similar to what is produced when a body region is massaged. Photothermal effects are beneficial for patients but they are secondary to the other two laser therapy effects.

Photochemical refers to interactions of the laser light with various biochemical components of cells. These interactions result in an assortment of beneficial anti-inflammatory effects. Lasers that stimulate photochemical reactions also have photothermal effects.

Photomechanical refers to interaction of the laser light with the physical structure of cells. Just as an entire organism has a skeleton, each of the cells that make up the organism has a skeleton that gives it shape and contributes significantly to how it functions. Lasers with photomechanical effects stimulate cells by massaging their cellular skeletons; these effects are anti-inflammatory and regenerative. These lasers have only a very small amount of photothermal effect.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND REGENERATIVE EFFECTS

The photothermal, photochemical and photomechanical interactions of lasers with cells and body tissues produce warming, anti-inflammatory and regenerative (new growth of healthy cells and body tissues) effects. The anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects are the sought-after results of laser therapy.

Lasers producing photochemical reactions have anti-inflammatory effects. There are four individual laser wavelengths that each have different, specific photochemical effects. Most therapy lasers used in veterinary medicine use one or two of these four wavelengths. Only one therapy laser combines all four wavelengths in one device. At YVC we have the best therapy laser that uses one or two wavelengths, and we also have the advanced laser that uses all four photochemical wavelengths.

The one-of-kind therapy laser that interacts with cells and body tissues in a photomechanical way has anti-inflammatory effects and regenerative effects. It uses one specific wavelength of light that is different from the four wavelengths that stimulate photochemical reactions. The anti-inflammatory effects are similar to those produced by the advanced photochemical laser; the regenerative effects are unique to this laser device. YVC is equipped with this laser.

IN SUMMARY

YVC is the first and only companion animal veterinary practice (definitely in Maine, possibly in the U.S.!) to provide comprehensive laser therapy. We are equipped with three therapy laser devices, giving us the ability to perform three types of anti-inflammatory laser therapy and regenerative therapy:

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY LASER THERAPY

YVC Laser Therapy 1 - standard photochemical therapy by one or two wavelengths